


You Won't Believe The Week I've Had

by Never_Eat_Sour_Wheat



Category: Rodney R. Rodney
Genre: Gen, I don't know how to tag this, Marriage, Oneshot, Talking To Dead People, did you know it's legal to marry a dead person in France? :), it feels so weird to be posting this osnadfnidf, the comic is good y'all should read it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-13 16:20:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29281347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Never_Eat_Sour_Wheat/pseuds/Never_Eat_Sour_Wheat
Summary: Rodney creeps Chad out a whole lot, but it's not fair to withhold something as significant as a wedding ring from the guy
Kudos: 5





	You Won't Believe The Week I've Had

**Author's Note:**

> Aaaaaa I don't know what I'm doing! I wrote this in maybe half an hour, idk, this is just silly and fun! Aaaaaa!!!

“First it’s a leak, then it stops altogether,” Chad mumbled to himself as he tried to loosen the pipes under his house. “We’re renting this place, shouldn’t a landlord be around to do this?” The pipes finally seemed to settle in a normal way (or, what he thought was a normal way), and he sighed. He vaguely wondered if this was why rent was cheap, but he started shuffling out of the crawlspace before he could give it too much thought. Something small dug into the spot between his shoulder blades, and he hissed in mild pain. When he’d finally managed to get back on his hands and knees, he picked the object up.

A… wedding band?

“What the fuck…?” He mumbled. He slipped it in his pocket, then carefully made his way out of the crawlspace. When he was standing in full light again, he pulled it out and looked it over. Yup, definitely a wedding band. It looked more traditional, just a simple, golden ring. He turned it over in his hands and wondered who it could possibly belong to. The last person to be in his crawl space was…

“Oh, shit…” Chad mumbled. “He’s married? How the hell did he find someone? Where are they?” He’d been to Rodney’s house before, he hadn’t seen anyone or anything that might have indicated he had a spouse. “Did he…?” Chad shook his head. Thinking about Rodney being violent with anyone was just… rude. Sure, the guy creeped him the hell out, but it wasn’t fair to think about him murdering his own spouse. He seemed nice enough… maybe… 

Well, one thing was for certain, Chad couldn’t hold onto the band. It wasn’t right. In fact, the longer he thought about holding onto it, the worse he felt. No one seemed to live with Rodney, so maybe he was a widower. That was even sadder somehow. Chad waved to Karen through a window, and jerked his thumb towards Mrs. Smith’s house, telling her that that was where he was going. She grinned and gave him a thumbs up, and he blew her a kiss. He felt bad about lying to her about where he was going, but he had _no_ idea how to tell her he was going to Rodney’s place with a wedding band.

Aside from definitely not phrasing it like that, at least.

The giant skeletons in Rodney’s yard didn’t even bother him that much today. The whole walk over he couldn’t stop thinking about how bad he felt for the guy. He was almost definitely a widower, since Chad couldn’t think of someone marrying Rodney without knowing what they were signing up for. He probably held onto the wedding ring for sentimental reasons, and he might have even been tearing his house apart to try and find it. It’d been almost a week since he’d helped with their leak, and Chad felt bad that he hadn’t noticed the ring sooner. Although, he didn’t blame himself. It’s not like he went into his own crawlspace for fun.

He didn’t even have to knock on the door before Rodney was opening it. In fact, he was still on the stairs up to the porch, and he jumped when he saw Rodney standing in the shadows of his own house. “Hello…” he said, his voice as eerie as ever.

“Uh… hey,” Chad replied. “Listen, man, uh… I found something in the crawlspace that I think you dropped, and-”

“Are your pipes… leaking again?” Rodney asked.

“Uh, no, they’re all good!” Chad said, flashing him an awkward grin. “I think you just tightened them a little too much is all. But, uh, I found something that I think is yours.” He held out the wedding band, ready to explain himself more, but Rodney snatched it from his hand so fast that he almost missed it. His jump was definitely a delayed reaction.

Rodney stared at the ring for a long time, before he carefully slipped it onto his finger. He stared at his own hand for even longer, almost like he wasn’t used to seeing the ring on him. It made Chad sweat, and he couldn’t help thinking that he’d gotten the wrong idea and some poor guy out there now had to worry about a random stranger wearing his lost wedding band. “Thank you…” Rodney whispered, and his tone was so soft that it made Chad jump again. “I have been… looking everywhere for this…”

“Uh, yeah!” Chad said. “Don’t mention it!” Rodney stared at him for a moment, almost like he was expecting something. “Um… that’s really all I had to say, so I’ll just-”

“You want to know about her… don’t you?” Rodney asked. Chad didn’t reply with words, but he did nod. Rodney gestured for him to come inside, so he did. He carefully stepped around the rabbits, making sure he didn’t catch any of their paws under foot. “Mom and Dad are… not inside at the moment,” Rodney said.

Chad was pretty sure that was meant to be comforting, but it was anything but. “So… you have a wife?” He asked.

“Yes,” Rodney replied simply.

“But… she doesn’t live here?”

“No.”

“C’mon, man, I wasn’t going to pry until you said you were pretty sure I was going to ask,” Chad said, trying to needle any other information out of Rodney.

“She’s… dead,” Rodney said. He sounded just as detached as he usually did, but it wasn’t creepy now, just… sad. “Has been for… several years.”

“I’m sorry…” Chad said. He’d never been the best at comforting people. “I’m sure she misses you.”

“She does.” And he was right back to being creepy. “We knew that… we wouldn’t have long… together.”

“Was she sick?” Chad asked.

“No,” Rodney replied, “but she knew, and… she didn’t hide it from me.”

“Um… okay,” Chad said. “Well, uh… how long were you guys married before she… y’know…”

“We… weren’t,” Rodney replied. Chad felt a shiver go down his spine. “I lived in… France for a little while.”

“That’s not really… clearing anything up,” Chad said. He shuffled awkwardly from side to side, still mindful of the rabbits. “She died before you guys got married? So you’re not really married?”

“We are,” Rodney replied, “because it was in France.”

“Okay, well, I’ve got some stuff to google later,” Chad mumbled to himself. “Uh… I’m really sorry, man. But I’m glad you’ve got the ring back. You seriously seem like… I dunno, like you need it or something.”

“I can’t see her without it,” Rodney replied.

“Okay! Cool! So, uh, I’ve gotta go! Karen needed me to, uh… fix… something.” Chad could tell that Rodney didn’t believe him, but he didn’t protest when he went to the door. “Thanks for telling me about her! And sorry for stopping by without notice! See ya!”

“Goodbye… friend,” Rodney said, but Chad had already shut the door.

“Marriage laws in France…” Chad mumbled as he typed the search into his phone. “You can… legally marry a dead person in France if you were engaged before their death. Huh… probably a thing with inheritance or something…”

Rodney watched his neighbor from his window, before he drew all the curtains in his house. He sat in the middle of the floor in his living room and took the ring off his finger again. He set it on the ground and stared at it for a few minutes, before an easy smile slipped onto his face, one that was reserved for moments like this alone. “Hello… dearest,” he said quietly. “I missed you…” There was a quiet murmuring from the air around him, and he hummed contently. “You will not believe the week I’ve had.”


End file.
